Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

44

The Have-Nots

"The seers climb Indra like a ladder," fits the bill. Exactly. To our Seer much that remained to be done was becoming clear.

Let us hear it from the horse's mouth.

"All these matters as well as the pursuance of my work," wrote Sri Aurobindo to Motilal Roy in another undated letter,' "depend on the success of the struggle which is the crowning movement of my Sadhana—viz, the attempt to apply knowledge and power to the events and happenings of the world without the necessary instrumentality of physical action. What I am attempting is to establish the normal working of the Siddhis in life i.e. the perception of thoughts, feelings and happenings of other beings and in other places throughout the world without any use of information by speech or any other data; 2^nd, the communication of the ideas and feelings I select to others (individuals, groups, nations) by mere transmission of willpower; 3^rd the silent compulsion on them to act according to these communicated ideas and feelings; 4^th the determining of

'January 1913 is the tentative date suggested by the editors.

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events, actions and results of action throughout the world by pure silent will-power. When I wrote to you last, I had begun the general application of these powers which God has been developing in me for the last two or three years, but, as I told you, I was getting badly beaten. This is no longer the case, for in the 1^st, 2^nd and even in 3^,d I am now largely successful, although the action of these powers is not yet perfectly organised. It is only in the 4^th that I feel a serious resistance. I can produce single results with perfect accuracy, I can produce general results with difficulty and after a more or less prolonged struggle, but I can neither be sure of producing the final decisive result I am aiming at nor of securing that orderly arrangement of events which prevents the results from being isolated and only partially effective. In some directions I seem to succeed, in others partly to fail and partly to succeed, while in some fields, e.g., this matter of financial equipment both for my personal life and for my work I have hitherto entirely failed. When I shall succeed even partially in that, then I shall know that my hour of success is at hand and that I have got rid of the past Karma in myself and others, which stands in our way and helps the forces of Kali-yuga to baffle our efforts."

Almost from the beginning of the Pondicherry days, in letter after letter, Sri Aurobindo spoke about the financial difficulties he was facing. When he wrote to Anandarao in mid-1912, he detailed his needs.

"The amounts of money I shall need for the year in question are Rs. 300 to clear up the liabilities I have contracted during the last nine or ten months (in which I have had only fortuitous help) and some Rs. 1200 (or 1500 reckoning up to

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August 1913) to maintain myself and those I am training. I had hoped to get the money from a certain gentleman¹ who had promised me Rs. 2000 a year for the purpose and given it for the first year from October 1910 to October 1911. But there are great difficulties in the way....

"At present I am at the height of my difficulties, in debt, with no money for the morrow, besieged in Pondicherry and all who could help are in temporary or permanent difficulties or else absent and beyond communication. I take it, from my past experiences as a sign that I am nearing the end of the period of trial. I would ask you if you can do no more, at least to send me some help to tide over the next month or two. After that period for certain reasons, it will be easier to create means, if they are not created for me."

It comes to us as a shock to learn the poor living condition of Sri Aurobindo and his household. On 3 July 1912 Sri Aurobindo states baldly their actual situation.

'Your money (by letter and wire) and clothes reached safely," he wrote to Motilal Roy. "The French Post Office here has got into the habit (not yet explained) of not delivering your letters till Friday... I do not know whether this means anything.... It may be a natural evolution of French Republicanism. Or it may be something else.... The postman may be paid by the police. Personally, however, I am inclined to believe in the Republican administration theory,—the Republic always likes to have time on its hands.

"I have not written all this time because I was not allowed

K. V. Rangaswamy Iyengar, the zamindar of Kodailam; see ch. 5 for details.

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to put pen to paper for some time,—that is all. I send enclosed a letter to our Marathi friend. If he can give you anything for me, please send it without the least delay. If not, I must ask you to procure for me by will-power or any other power in heaven or on earth Rs. 50 at least as a loan. The situation just now is that we have Rs. 1 V-i

"Srinivasa is also without money. As to Bharati living on nothing means an uncertain quantity... No doubt God will provide, but He has contracted a bad habit of waiting till the last moment. I only hope He does not wish us to learn how to live on a minus quantity like Bharati."

Elsewhere he explained that not only for the daily necessities but also "I need some extra money badly now for materials for the work I have now seriously entered on in connection with the Veda and the Sanskrit language."

Finally, so straitened became their circumstances that they could no longer afford to live in Raghavan House. In April 1913, from European quarters they shifted to the west of the Canal. A fact duly noted by the British government with deep satisfaction.

But Motilal had seen for himself the situation when he came to Pondicherry in mid-1911.

He came from Chandernagore along with two other special Representatives to the French Council in Pondicherry, for about a month and a half. But it was dangerous to meet Sri Aurobindo openly as Alexandra David-Neel had found out to her dismay. Letting a few days go by, Motilal went to Odeon Salai, a big open ground close to the Botanical Garden, where a game of football was in progress. Moni, Nolini, Saurin, Bejoy

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Raghavan Chetty House as it was in the 1950s

were among the players—quite good, it seems. But that's another story, and we need not go into that now.

Anyway when Saurin saw Motilal he drew near him, as though in the movement of the game. Then without uttering a word he pointed towards a young Pondicherian. Motilal later found out that the youth was Joseph David, a future eminent citizen, who was to become a barrister and eventually the mayor of Pondicherry. But that was still in futurity.

That very day, however, as night began spreading her cloak of darkness, Motilal wrapped himself in a Madrasi shawl and silently got into the pousse-pousse Joseph David had brought. The pousse-pousse took them to St. Louis street, and stopped by a two-storeyed house. But all was in darkness! Motilal's heart beat faster. David descended and knocked at a door. As soon as the door opened, David got on the carriage and left. Motilal met Moni as he entered. He met others also. Then he was taken up the stairs.

It had been more than one year since Motilal had seen his Guru. But he could hardly see! His eyes overflowed with tears. As he calmed down he was pained to see how thin Sri Aurobindo had become. His eyes, however, were calm and sweetness poured out from them.

After a long talk it was decided that Motilal would visit only twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, so as not to draw the attention of the police stationed at the entrance. They were there to collect information on all those who came calling. "That was why," Nolini reminisced, "Motilal when he first came to Pondicherry had come dressed as an Anglo-Indian, and he never entered our house, except by the backdoor and under

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cover of darkness after nightfall." The household garbage was dumped in the narrow lane near the backdoor, remarked Motilal.

And do you know why Motilal saw the house in darkness when he first came? Well, because they had just two lamps to share between the six of them. Sri Aurobindo had a candle lamp in his room upstairs, and a small kerosene lamp was used in the kitchen-cum-dining room. At night, when dinner was ready the candle lamp was taken down to the kitchen.

Sri Aurobindo used to bathe last and go directly to the kitchen where the other members would be waiting for him after taking their baths. The boys cooked by turns. They—at least Moni and Nolini—had lessons in Latin, Greek and French from Sri Aurobindo. V. Ramaswami (Va. Ra.) may have taken part.

Va. Ra. joined Sri Aurobindo's household in 1912. An anecdote of his brings to life the pitiful living condition of those days.

"One fine morning," wrote Va. Ra., "in Aurobindo's house there was hardly any money for marketing. He asked us what things we had got for cooking. There was some rice, chillies, gingerly oil and salt. The chillies were fried; rice was cooked and there was a grand dinner with the salt added thereto. You must have seen Aurobindo, then! What a remarkable man! The man who could roll in wealth and command any convenience! He wanted to finish that day, with that hearty meal."

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